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Besa: The Promise Film Festival Schedule

During World War II, Albanian Muslims provided shelter for thousands of Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria. Invoking the ancient moral code of besa (a vow to care for anyone facing of danger), many people, including Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians in Albania sheltered, hid, and protected Jews from the occupying German troops. Besa: The Promise addresses the broad history of the rescues by following two characters affected by the experience: Rexhep Hoxha, a Muslim-Albanian storekeeper, and Norman H. Gershman, a Jewish-American photographer. Toward the end of World War II, Hoxha's family had provided shelter to a Bulgarian Jewish family who left three Hebrew books behind when they fled to Palestine. The film focuses on Hoxha and Gershman's attempt to return these three books to their original Jewish owners, the Aladjem family, now living in Israel. The American, Norman Gershman, has taken photographic portraits of Albanian rescuers since 2002 while also documenting the oral reminiscence of these rescuers and the broader history of the time.

World Without Genocide
Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 7 PM
Reception starts at 5:30 PM
Part of the exhibit Besa: Albanian Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust
William Mitchell College of Law Gallery & Auditorium
875 Summit Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55104

South East European Film Festival
Sunday, May 5 at 7 PM
Museum of Tolerance
Simon Wiesenthal Plaza
9786 West Pico Blvd (southeast corner of Pico Boulevard and Roxbury Drive)
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: http://www.seefilmla.org/seefest/ (2013 information is not up on their website yet)